God's Playground: 1795 to the present

Norman Davies

COLUMBIA University Press, 2005 - History - 591 pages

The most comprehensive survey of Polish history available in English, God's Playground demonstrates Poland's importance in European history from medieval times to the present. Abandoning the traditional nationalist approach to Polish history, Norman Davies instead stresses the country's rich multinational heritage and places the development of the Jewish German, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian communities firmly within the Polish context.

Davies emphasizes the cultural history of Poland through a presentation of extensive poetical, literary, and documentary texts in English translation. In each volume, chronological chapters of political narrative are interspersed with essays on religious, social, economic, constitutional, philosophical, and diplomatic themes.

This new edition has been revised and fully updated with two new chapters to bring the story to the end of the twentieth century.

What people are saying

Review: God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present

User Review  - Jan Hidders - Goodreads

The second volume of "God's Playground" will tell you about how the Polish spirit survived during the time of partitions when there was no real Polish state to speak off, how the Polish Nation was ...

Review: God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present

User Review  - Jon - Goodreads

Excellent read

About the author

Norman Davies is chair of the history department, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, at the University of London.

Bibliographic information

• Title: God's Playground: 1795 to the present; Volume 2 of God's Playground: A History of Poland : in Two Volumes, Norman Davies; Volume 2 of God's Playground: A History of Poland, Norman Davies
• Author: Norman Davies
• Edition: 2, illustrated, revised
• Publisher: COLUMBIA University Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0231128193, 9780231128193
• Length: 591 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Eastern; History / Europe / Russia & the Former Soviet Union